In the southwest corner of Legislative Plaza, downtown Nashville, there is a bronze sculpture with three forms -- a large female figure holding smaller male and female figures in her lap. This enigmatic monument is the Tennessee Monument to the Women of the Confederacy and its simple plaque reads:
Erected by the State of Tennessee to commemorate the heroic action of the women of Tennessee during the War Between the States. Dedicated October 10, 1926, Belle Kinney Sculptor. Plaque placed by the Tennessee Historical Commission.
Click image to enlargeInscription. (South face)
Our MothersTo the women of the Confederacy “Whose pious ministrations to our wounded soldiers soothed the last hours of those who died far from the objects of their tenderest love, whose domestic labors contributed much to supply the wants of our defenders in the field, whose zealous faith in our cause shone a guiding star undimmed by the darkest clouds of war, whose fortitude sustained them under all the privations to which they were subjected, whose floral tribute annually expresses their enduring love and reverence for our sacred dead; and whose patriotism will teach their children to emulate the deeds of our revolutionary sires.” Jefferson Davis
United Confederate Veterans Honor the Memory of the Confederate Women of Mississippi.
(East face)
Our DaughtersDevoted daughters of the heroic women and noble men, they keep the mounds of loved ones sweet with flowers and perpetuated in marble and bronze the granite characters of a soldiery that won the admiration of the world and a womanhood whose ministrations were as tender as an angels benediction.
(North face)
Our SistersTheir smiles inspired hope; their tender hands soothed the pangs of pain; their prayers encouraged faith in god; and when the dragon of war closed its fangs of poison and death, they like guardian angels, entwined their hands in their brothers arms, encouraged them to overcome the losses of war and to conquer the evils in its wake, adopting as their motto:
“Lest We Forget”.
(West face)
Our WivesThey loved their land because it was their own, and scorned to seek another reason why, calamity was their touchstone; and in the ordeal of fire their fragility was tempered to the strength of steel. Angels of comfort, their courage and tenderness soothed all wounds of body and of spirit more than medicines. They girded their gentle hearts with fortitude, and suffering all things, hoping all things fed the failing fires of patriotism to the end. The memory and example of their devotion shall endure.
